The bad news: Repairs, officials estimated, would take 10 weeks.
For veteran Atlanta watchers, that 10-week estimate seemed either wildly optimistic or absolutely fantastical. It was both.
Two weeks ago, as the 10-week mark arrived, Councilman Alex Wan told constituents, “we are still aiming to open up one or two lanes in April, and construction will continue until the remaining lanes are completed.”
On Thursday, the city told me they are shooting for mid-May.
Half mile north, at the intersection of Cheshire Bridge and Lavista roads, is another major thoroughfare that’s been shut down. Two blocks of Lavista Road have been closed to traffic since Nov. 10 because of a massive fire that destroyed an apartment complex there.
Today, the hulking ruins of the 284-unit Reserve at LaVista Walk resembles, as one firefighter told me, Berlin in 1945.
And because four stories of wall totters, city officials have fenced off the road. This has caused the 18,000 drivers who once traversed that vital east-west corridor to cut through the adjoining shopping center’s parking lot (in front of and behind the Tara Theatre.) Or they meander through the nearby neighborhood, driving residents crazy.
“There’s a lot of people cutting through; it’s a little nerve-wracking,” said Kyle Torres, who was walking her newborn son in a stroller as perhaps a dozen cars queued up at a nearby stop sign. There are no sidewalks.
“People aren’t paying attention; people are angry and they’re driving fast,” she said. “You know, Atlanta traffic.”
Residents there in the Lavista Park neighborhood, which is now part of the ever-expanding city of Brookhaven, feel no one’s listening to them. There’s a growing feeling Atlanta hasn’t pushed to reopen the road because most of those inconvenienced are not Atlanta city voters.
“People feel that they’re not paying attention to us,” said Marsha Hanus, a neighborhood association leader. “At the end of the day, people want Atlanta to talk…
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